This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Bowling Green picked the best time to be playing its best hockey. Since being swept in their road series against Minnesota State on Dec. 6-7 in Mankato, Minn., the Falcons have turned the corner. They’ve lost just once in regulation since then (a 4-3 decision against Ferris State in Big Rapids in January) and have … Read more
February is usually a month wrought with hand-wringing within the college hockey community. Teams and programs need points more than ever to advance their postseason dreams into optimal positions while teams hanging around the national Pairwise Rankings bubble can’t let their own clutch results slip through fingertips. One or two missed opportunities is the difference … Read more
Canisius has flown under the radar most of this season. Trevor Large’s team has at least one game in hand on everyone else, and is currently in fifth place, the final bye position, based on points earned per game. “The reality for us is that like most seasons, it’s been a roller coaster,” said Large, … Read more
“You don’t have to do anything special. You just can’t do anything wrong.” That nugget from Minnesota coach Bob Motzko speaks to so much in life, but it’s especially useful when trying to contain one of the top lines in the country, a line that also happens to play for your own team’s top conference … Read more
All three Hockey East teams participating in this year’s Beanpot tournament have a reason to believe the target is on their back. Northeastern, long the Beanpot’s doormat, is looking for its second three-peat in seven years. Boston College is the No. 1 team in the USCHO men’s D-I poll. And Boston University is the only … Read more
You’ll often hear coaches and athletes say they learn more from losses than they do from wins. To hear Arizona State coach Greg Powers say it during his team’s press conference Tuesday, the Sun Devils took important lessons from the back end of a split last weekend. ASU had won five of its last six … Read more
Last weekend’s series at Slater Family Ice Arena in Bowling Green was a feast for goaltending fans. Occupying the nets across from one another were the No. 1 and No. 2 goalies in the nation in save percentage in Augustana’s Josh Kotai (.950) and Bowling Green’s Christian Stoever (.948). Fittingly, only three goals were scored … Read more
The dog days of college hockey’s regular season usually hit around January’s latter weeks. Conference tournament races are well-shaped for teams facing postseason contention, and even the national picture within the Pairwise Rankings won’t shift frequently after results between its highest contenders. Everything is starting to fall into place for February’s mad dash to the … Read more
In early November, American International announced that it was downgrading its hockey program to Division II. This means, barring a last-minute long-shot reprieve, this season will be the final one in Atlantic Hockey for the Yellow Jackets, who won four regular-season titles from 2019 to 2022 and enjoyed three playoff championships/NCAA appearances in 2019, 2021, … Read more
“There’s a real piece to sophomore slumps.” That’s the way that Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings began to answer a question in his weekly press conference about Badgers forward Quinn Finley, who most decidedly is not experiencing that stereotypical setback. After a 10-goal rookie campaign, Finley leads Wisconsin with 18 goals and 15 assists, and the … Read more
Checking in on a few trends around the league on the eve of CT Ice and a big series between a couple of prominent programs: — New Hampshire has a big problem: It can’t score. The Wildcats have lost four straight by a combined score of 15-7 and were held to just one goal on … Read more
Miami may be mired in a 14-game losing streak, but first-year RedHawks coach Anthony Noreen is keen to make his team one that nobody will want to face down the stretch. Better conditioning was evident both of the last two weekends for Miami, even if it didn’t show up on the scoreboard as the RedHawks … Read more
Don’t count out Northern Michigan just yet. Sure, the Wildcats struggled mightily to start the 2024-25 season, but that was to be expected. The coaching change at the end of the spring — Grant Potulny left to coach in the AHL and Dave Shyiak was hired to take his place in June — also caused … Read more
The 2023 NCAA tournament returned ECAC Hockey to one of its highest watermarks in college hockey’s storied history. Alongside the Big Ten, the conference claimed four of the tournament’s 16 spots and represented a full quarter of the teams entered into the competition for the national championship. Two teams – Quinnipiac and Cornell – advanced … Read more
Scoring goals has been a challenge for Army West Point this season. Before last weekend, the Black Knights (7-15-0) were averaging 1.65 goals a game, and hadn’t scored more than two in a contest since a 5-3 loss to Holy Cross on Nov. 22. Brian Riley’s team came into last weekend’s series with Mercyhurst having … Read more
It’s a good week to be a sports fan in Michigan. As the top seed in the NFC, the Detroit Lions host the Washington Commanders in NFL playoff action Saturday night. After a coaching change, the Red Wings won their first seven games of 2025, putting them right there in the hunt for an NHL … Read more
Connecticut gave Hudson Schandor an opportunity, but he’s given plenty back. Schandor, Connecticut’s 5-foot-9, 175-pound graduate student forward from North Vancouver, B.C., recently surpassed 100 career points with a goal and two assists in a 4-1 win at New Hampshire last Friday, becoming the second-highest scorer in program history since it joined Hockey East in … Read more
If you’re an Omaha fan, there was a lot to like about the Mavericks’ home sweep last weekend over 13th-ranked Colorado College. It was especially rewarding for some of UNO’s veteran players. That includes graduate student forwards Brady Risk and Harrison Israels, a pair of Alaska transfers who, on a line with Myles Hilman, combined … Read more
After a trying end to 2024, the new year has been kind to St. Thomas. The Tommies–who were picked by many observers to be one of the main contenders for the CCHA’s MacNaughton Cup this season–never seemed to find their footing in the first half of this season. They went 4-10-4 overall and just 3-6-3 … Read more
It sure didn’t take long for college hockey to start celebrating over the fallen giant. For years, the Quinnipiac-established juggernaut ruled ECAC. The Bobcats won Cleary Cup after Cleary Cup and while they didn’t claim a conference championship, trips to the Frozen Four and the first ECAC national championship since Union and Yale’s consecutive titles … Read more